AUSTIN -- Closing a marathon hearing early Thursday on the controversial 'sanctuary cities' bill, the House sponsor said the Senate-approved version will be modified to allow police to check the immigration status only on people who have been arrested, not just detained.

State Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, said the goal of that change and others will be "to make it a better product."

Senate Bill 4, one of Gov. Greg Abbott's four emergency items for the current legislative session, seeks to compel local law enforcement authorities to cooperate with federal immigration officials by criminalizing noncompliance, as well as cutting state funds and imposing other financial penalties on cities and counties.

Geren said several proposed amendments and changes from the Senate version. The most significant of these would allow local police to check on the immigration status of only of people who have been formally arrested, rather than those who have been detained, as the Senate version states.

Other proposals included a "hold harmless" clause that would require the state indemnify local entities for lawsuits filed against them as a result of compliance with the bill, and a provision barring bail bondsmen from accepting money from criminal defendants who are unlikely to be released from custody due to their immigration status.

Wording was also added to clarify that witnesses and victims who come forward to report crimes will not be questioned on their immigration status.

Committee members also asked public schools and community clinics be exempted from places where can check on immigration status.

More than 600 people had registered to testify on the bill at the hearing, with only about a dozen speaking in support of the proposed legislation. Police chiefs and sheriffs, church leaders, and legal experts joined hundreds of immigrants and activists in voicing their opposition.

At the end of the hearing before the House State Affairs Committee, Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, announced that the bill would be left pending without a vote.

Geren said the bill may be amended to expressly limit the category of arrests that could would be covered to class A misdemeanors and above. Under Texas law, the lowest level class C misdemeanors may be subject to arrest, as are traffic stops.

Geren's office said Thursday that the next round of revisions will be under discussion over the next several days. But it may be some time before a final version is ready.

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Asked by one witness for a copy of the House version of the bill earlier during the hearing, Cook said, "we're a long way from getting that."

Democratic Rep. Rene Oliveira of Brownsville also noted that "there are many very serious problems" that need to be addressed.